Blooms, SAMR & the 3 C’s

When the iPad first hit the classroom it was criticised for being a *Consumption* only device. Of course this is no longer the case as *Creation* is easy with hundreds of media rich creation apps. *Collaboration* is one of the most exciting things about the iPad, enhancing differentiation, assessment and feedback with students.

Consumption, Collaboration and Creation. Every app can be arranged by its core purpose into one of these 3 categories.

All the apps you’ll ever need

As I prepared for an upcoming presentation at a local University I unloaded my test iPad of all its applications and created a new iPad, complete only with apps which I use at school every week. This iPad would become my “essentials” iPad, strategically and efficiently full of apps I wholly recommend to every educator I meet.

As I went through the apps I developed a list, indicating the apps purpose. I found that these purposes consistently fell into 3 categories: Consumption, Creation and Collaboration.

Consumption

  • Safari
  • iTunes U
  • iBooks
  • Khan Academy
  • Zite
  • Free Books
  • YouTube
  • Quick Math
  • Gamification apps

Creation

  • Camera
  • Pages
  • Keynote
  • iMovie
  • Explain Everything
  • Book Creator
  • Show Me
  • Sonic Pics
  • Photoshop Touch

Collaboration

  • Edmodo/Schoology
  • Google Sites/Wikis
  • Showbie
  • Dropbox
  • Mail
  • Nearpod
  • Skype/Facetime
  • Twitter
  • *AirDrop

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I found I had many educational gaming type apps (gamification of learning) which fitted into the Consumption category. These gaming apps could be easily subdivided further into learning areas, English, Maths, Science, SOSE, Humanities etc, and i’ll do this in another post soon.
Today I chose to focus on these 3 “C’s” activities, and it was clear that they could be easily aligned to Blooms Taxonomy objectives. In fact if I moved around this venn diagram twice (Round 1 and Round 2) not only was it easy to see how the different levels of Blooms was attained, but you could even align the tasks to the SAMR level as well.

I don’t consider this structure to my app organisation unique, or indeed the alignment between Blooms, SAMR and technology (and in particular the iPad) a break through discovery. But when you are considering your teaching tool kit, consider a concise balance between these apps.

Which apps are you consuming (researching, learning specific facts) with?

Which apps are you collaborating (sharing, building, assessing) with?

Which apps are you creating (combining, presenting, concluding) with?

As you get comfortable with this process and the apps you are using, try it again. Except this time, look to further your classroom activity by exploring your existing apps further with new objectives in Blooms, or use new apps to challenge your students to find new tasks – which were considered inconceivable before you had an iPad. It is at this second visit that you will see your classroom practice truly transforming.

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What would you like to do with the iPad in education?

I have investigated classroom practice with the iPad, and aligned it even closer to Blooms Taxonomy with example workflows here.

Doug Loader

Doug has worked in education for over 5 years. Primarily an audio engineer Doug now works in K12 education and can often be found in class addressing students and teachers in podcasting, movie making, presentation software and web design. Doug was recently acknowledged by Apple as an Apple Distinguished Educator and by Adobe as a Adobe Education Leader. Doug spent 3 years working with Apple Education in the UK developing a number of workshops and honing his presentation skills infront of 100′s of teachers from over 40 top UK universities. Doug also writes a quarterly article for Education Today magazine.